Reaction: Amazon MP3 Store

Amazon's long-awaited entry to the UK music digital marketplace has been broadly welcomed and its arrival puts the pressure on the iTunes Store to up its game.

Amazon launches UK MP3 Store

Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst with Jupiter Research, says the decision to sell DRM-free tracks by Amazon at cheaper prices will see it become a serious player.

"The key avenue for them is pricing... either they’re loss leading as an aggressive market entry strategy or they’ve got some good deals from the labels," Mulligan said.

"If it’s the former, they’ll have to revert to standard pricing at some stage. If it’s the latter the labels will need to wise up and give similar deals to Apple if they want to avoid cutting their nose to spite their face," Mulligan said.

Comment: Amazon MP3 Store

Other music retail websites welcomed Amazon's entry to the UK marketplace, but were quick to point out that Amazon was not the first to offer DRM-free music.

"We'd like to congratulate Amazon UK for finally entering the MP3 market albeit a little late," Ben Drury, chief executive of 7Digital said, adding that 7Digital was the first to offer DRM-free music in Europe back in September.

"It's great that general retailers like Amazon clearly recognise the importance of digital music for consumers and the MP3 universal music format which works on all devices," Drury added.

He pointed out that this is another "victory for MP3 and another blow for iTunes – that doesn’t offer MP3s at all."

Jonny Evans, editor of the music news website Distorted Loop, echoed Drury's comments.

"You have to welcome Amazon joining 7Digital in offering high-quality music free of rights-restricting DRM in the UK market," Evans said.

"Competition is always good news for music fans, though what's key is that with these two services we now have a number of options for digital music access and purchase," he continued.

The impetus is now on Apple to offer its fans a DRM-free equivalent and also to match Amazon's prices, Evans said.

"Recent activity on the DRM-free iTunes Plus Store suggests another tiger will soon enter the room for DRM-free music downloads, and that's going to boost music sales and create even more diversity in the industry," he said.

Whether a full on price war will break out remains to be seen, but the general consensus seems to be that this is good news for music fans.

What do you think of the new Amazon MP3 Store for the UK? Have your say in the Web User forums.

http://mp3.amazon.co.uk
http://distorted-loop.com
www.7digital.com
www.play.com

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